An apparatus and method is disclosed for blocking specific television commercials from the viewer's television based upon the characteristics of the television commercial and replacing the commercial with television content located by a content interrogation program. The content interrogation program seeks out television content based upon a user search term specifically for use as contingent programming to replace the blocked commercial. The content interrogation program can have multiple search terms and provide prioritized multiple searches to identify multiple segments to play in spaces created by blocked commercials.
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1. A program product that blocks a first television program and displays a second television program, the program product comprising:
a computer readable medium;
wherein the computer readable medium comprises instructions executable by a computer processor for a logical unit to perform steps comprising:
identifying an unwanted television program;
buffering a multiplexed television signal comprising the first television program and the second television program;
determining whether the first television program is the unwanted television program;
responsive to the determination that the first television program is the unwanted television program, displaying the second television program;
wherein the second television program is determined using an elaborate viewing hierarchy;
wherein the elaborate viewing hierarchy is a combination of a plurality of universal, by commercial, by originating station, or by time of day alternative viewing formats.
2. The program product of
wherein the elaborate viewing hierarchy selects the second television program by commercial; and
wherein by commercial means using content from a particular station to replace the unwanted television program.
3. The program product of
wherein the elaborate viewing hierarchy selects the second television program by originating station; and
wherein by originating station means using an original station to determine the alternative content which will replace the unwanted television program.
4. The program product of
determining whether the first television program is located on a preferred television channel;
responsive to the determination that the first television program is located on the preferred television channel, displaying the second television program; and
wherein the second television program is located on a contingent television channel.
5. The program product of
determining whether the first television program is located on a preferred television channel;
responsive to the determination that the first television program is not located on the preferred television channel, displaying the second television program; and
wherein the second television program is located on the preferred television channel.
6. The program product of
7. The program product of
8. The program product of
wherein the first television program is identified by a unique digital identifying tag; and
wherein the unique digital identifying tag is a number sequence before the header and after the trailer of each commercial. The number sequence is assigned according to an industry standard that allows each commercial to be identified from every other commercial.
9. The program product of
wherein said first television signal is recognized by a component signature; and
wherein the component signature is a group of variables, based on a time component, an X video component, a Y video component, and an audio component, that are used to identify a commercial from all other commercials when a cumulative digital signature is not available.
10. The program product of
wherein said first television signal is recognized by a cumulative digital signature; and
wherein the cumulative digital signature is the aggregation of at least one selected characteristic of a data sequence to provide a unique number for identification of the complete data sequence.
11. The program product of
wherein the second television program is selected based on a staggered time alternate viewing package; and
wherein the staggered time alternate viewing package means an alternate viewing package broadcast on start times that are staggered for a number of seconds to coincide with the time slots of blocked commercials.
12. The program product of
13. The program product of
14. The program product of
15. The program product of
wherein the first television program and the second television program are transmitted on a multiplexed cable signal; and
wherein the multiplexed cable signal funnels several different streams of data over a common communications line.
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This application is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 10/205,538 filed Jul. 25, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,983,481, “Apparatus and Method for Blocking Television Commercials with a Content Interrogation Program.”
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for blocking undesired television commercials and interrogating the content of the programming in order to select alternate viewing to take the place of the blocked programming.
Debates today rage about both the delivery and funding of informational content in all of its forms. On the Internet, many content providers are moving away from their advertisement-based business models and moving towards subscription-based business models. Despite rapid advances in technology, the delivery mechanisms and methods of generating revenue for content delivered through television broadcasts have been relatively stagnant, when compared to the delivery mechanisms and methods of generating revenue for the Internet and web delivery systems. In television broadcasts, advertisers still attempt to reach users using the same techniques that they have used for decades which are the thirty and sixty second commercials interspaced throughout specific television programs. In addition to technology, the viewer is becoming increasingly sophisticated and is demanding that every second of their time, whether engaged in work or leisure pursuits, be well spent. For the vast majority of television viewers, time engaged in viewing undesired advertisements is not considered time well spent. Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus and method for preventing a television viewer from viewing unwanted commercials.
Additionally, television viewers generally do not prefer to have periods of interrupted programming or “dead air” when they are viewing a program. It would be preferable if the blocked commercial could be replaced with user-defined alternative programming.
Application Ser. No. 10/116,613, “Apparatus and Method for Blocking Television Commercials and Displaying Alternative Programming,” discloses a logical unit and a commercial blocking program in the logical unit to allow alternative viewing options so that the user may define the alternative programming to replace the unwanted commercial. The commercial blocking program breaks all incoming television signals into time, video, and audio components and is able to recognize specific commercials based on those components. Upon viewing an unwanted commercial, the user indicates that he wants to block the commercial through one of a variety of input methods. The commercial blocking program then prevents the commercial from being displayed on the user's television and causes alternative programming to be displayed instead. The user may configure the alternative programming via the alternative programming logic. The user may configure the alternative programming as a universal television channel, based on the specific commercial, based on the television station, based on the time of day, or based on an elaborate viewing hierarchy. At the end of the blocked commercial, the commercial blocking program displays the television program that was originally displayed on the user's television. Alternatively, the commercial blocking program can buffer the various television programs received from the cable provider and record segments of the cable signal based on certain keywords. The commercial blocking program searches for user defined keywords, records television programs complying with the search terms, and displays the recorded television programming stored in the memory.
Application Ser. No. 10/105,124, “Apparatus and Method of Searching for Desired Television Content, discloses an apparatus and method for allowing a user to search for specific content across many television channels in order to locate desirable television shows related to the searched content. Multiplexed cable signals flow through a logical unit which buffers text associated with the voice stream of each station via the pre-encoded closed-captioning signal or through the real-time voice translation within the logical unit. The user then enters search terms through one of a variety of different input devices. Upon entry of the search terms, the logical unit will compare the entered term with those available keywords stored in each buffer. Lexical parsing associates terms which may differ from plural to singular forms or in tense. Additionally, synonym comparisons may be made. The logical unit will return a list of matches for the search criteria and allows the user the option of going directly to the television program. The logical unit also evaluates each returned item for its relevancy to the keywords. When not in use, the logical unit maintains a quiescent but monitoring state permitting continuous creation of lexical buffers. This permits the user who turns on the television to immediately have such search terms available. Alternatively, the logic is implemented at the cable provider and enabled through interactive links to the home. In that case, the home logical unit is unnecessary.
What is needed is a combination of the blocked television commercials and the television content searching to provide a way to seek contingent programming to fill the space created by blocked commercials.
The present invention, which meets the needs stated above, is an apparatus and method for blocking specific television commercials from the viewer's television based upon the characteristics of the television commercial and replacing the commercial with television content located by a content interrogation program. The content interrogation program seeks out television content based upon a user search term specifically for use as contingent programming to replace the blocked commercial. The content interrogation program can have multiple search terms and provide prioritized multiple searches to identify multiple segments to play in spaces created by blocked commercials.
The terms below are defined for all uses herein as follows:
“Alternate viewing” means content displayed in place of a blocked commercial and may include one or more of the following: (1) a brief message displayed to inform the viewer that alternative programming will be presented during the commercial interval; (2) an on-screen counter, showing how many seconds are left before the planned return to primary viewing; and (3) directions to the tuner to go to a particular station. The directions to the tuner may be universal, by commercial, by originating station, by time of day, by definition of an elaborate viewing hierarchy, or to a micro-programming station or to buffered microprogramming.
“Alternate viewing provider” means an entity that offers micro-programming to a user for display in conjunction with a logical unit.
“Buffered package” means an alternate viewing package stored in the memory of a logical unit or at the cable service provider so that synchronization problems between the “switchover” point and the alternate programming delivery do not occur. In other words, when a request for alternative programming is made, the logical unit can draw from a buffered alternate viewing package so that the user does not risk joining the alternate viewing package in progress.
“Buffering” means a process of examining the closed captioning text or audio signal associated with television signals and configuring the examined signal such that it may be searched for specific keywords.
“By commercial” means using content from a particular station to replace the specifically identified commercial.
“By originating station” means using the original station to determine the alternative content which will replace all blocked commercials.
“By time of day” means using the time of day to determine which station to use as alternative content for all blocked commercials.
“Cable provider” means a company which provides television service to multiple users and includes satellite television providers.
“Component signature” is a group of variables, based on a time component, an X video component, a Y video component, and an audio component, that are used to identify a commercial from all other commercials when a cumulative digital signature is not available.
“Cumulative digital signature” means the aggregation of one or more selected characteristics of a data sequence to provide a unique number for identification of the complete data sequence.
“Elaborate viewing hierarchy” means a combination of a plurality of universal, by commercial, by originating station, or by time of day alternative viewing formats.
“Lexical parsing” as used herein means a process of finding matches to a desired search term by comparing the desired search term letter-by-letter with the terms in an available database.
“Micro-programming,” means one or more “alternate viewing packages” that each contain a complete information exchange or an entertainment package in a segment of time that is adapted to fit into the time available from one or more commercials blocked by a logical unit. For example, an alternate viewing package could contain news headlines, weather updates, sports updates, or very short live action or animated shorts that are designed to entertain the user in a crisp, concise segment. An alternate viewing package would normally be thirty or sixty seconds in length but could be designed for any length of time that a logical unit could make available.
“Multiplex” means the process of funneling several different streams of data over a common communications line.
“Staggered time alternate viewing package” means an alternate viewing package broadcast on start times that are staggered for a number of seconds to coincide with the time slots of blocked commercials. For example, an alternate viewing package may start at the top and bottom of the minute on a given station, and at 15 and 45 seconds on another station. Accordingly, the station with the alternate viewing package start time closest to the start time of the blocked commercial would be chosen.
“T” means a numerical value corresponding to playing time of a video segment containing a data that matches a search criterion.
“T before” means defining a video segment as the portion of a video segment containing a data that matches a search criteria plus a portion of the video segment before the data that runs for time equal to T.
“T after” means defining a video segment as the portion of a video segment containing a data that matches a search criteria plus a portion of the video segment after the data that runs for time equal to T.
“T center” means defining a video segment as the portion of a video segment containing a data that matches a search criteria plus a portion of the video segment before the data that runs for time equal to ½ T and a portion of the video segment after the data that runs for a time equal to ½ T.
“Time synchronized” means an alternate viewing package, delivered on demand in which the user joins the broadcast at the exact start point of the micro-program.
“Unique digital identifying tag” means a number sequence before the header and after the trailer of each commercial. The number sequence is assigned according to an industry standard that allows each commercial to be identified from every other commercial.
“Universal” means using content from a particular station to replace all blocked commercials.
In an alternate embodiment, logical unit 106 identifies commercials by a “component signature.” Multiplexed cable signals are defined by four components: a time component, an X video component, a Y video component, and an audio component. Every television program and/or commercial can be readily identified by these components. There is generally allowed some amount of time skew in the synchronization of the four components to identify the absolute beginning of a program or commercial. By taking the time skew into consideration, commercial blocking program 200 can identify a particular commercial. For example, a given pattern of video/audio signals occurring at a time “delta” (perhaps but not necessarily in the order of 500 microseconds) around the nominal beginning of an advertisement, may point back to a specified commercial.
Alternatively, logical unit 106 establishes a “cumulative digital signature” for a particular commercial. In this event, the signal need not be dissembled into its video/audio components as in the “component signature,” but rather, analysis of cumulative digital characteristics may be used to identify the commercial to be blocked. One or more characteristics of a data sequence is selected and aggregated to provide a unique number for identification purposes of the complete data sequence. The advantage of using cumulative digital characteristics is that all commercials could be blocked using this technique. In the case of commercials to be identified by a “cumulative digital signature,” the logical unit develops a library of the “cumulative digital signature” of the blocked advertisements. For example, it may be assumed that some time interval, “Tsample” is great enough to ascertain with accuracies approaching one hundred percent the identity of a given advertisement. “Tsample” may be a sub-second or it may be multi-second, depending on the processing power behind the logical unit and the uniqueness of the commercial. Once a commercial signal is detected to be identical to a blocked advertisement, then the logical unit takes the actions it has been programmed to implement.
As a commercial airs, the user has the option of blocking the commercial (206) by means of commercial blocking program 200 located in the local memory 809 (See
There are many different types of alternative programming that commercial blocking program 200 can display on the user's television instead of the blocked commercial. In one embodiment, commercial blocking program 200 can display a blank screen for the duration of the blocked commercial. However, in the preferred embodiment, commercial blocking program 200 displays the programming according to alternative programming logic 250 in
An elaborate viewing hierarchy is a combination of the alternative programming determinations in steps 254, 258, 262, and 266. There are numerous possible combinations of the programming determinations that will create elaborate viewing hierarchies. For example, one possible elaborate viewing hierarchy would be “whenever a blocked commercial airs, display THE WEATHER CHANNEL®; however, if there is also a blocked commercial on THE WEATHER CHANNEL®, then go to CNN® before noon and CNBC® after noon.” The elaborate viewing hierarchy may offer the user the option to “mix and match” various combinations of blocked and unblocked signals. For example, the user may select a split screen option where the blocked commercial appears in a portion of the screen while alternate programming appears in the remaining portion of the screen. The user may select an option that will display alternative programming while also displaying the close captioned text of the blocked commercial. Further in the alternative, the user may elect to have more than one alternate programming option displayed. For example, the user may elect to have a split screen display CNN® on one portion of the screen and THE WEATHER CHANNEL® on the other portion of the screen. If the user would like to define an elaborate viewing hierarchy, then the user enters the appropriate information (i.e. time, channel, and commercial) to define the hierarchy (272) and alternative programming logic 250 ends (274). If at step 270 the user determines that he or she would not like to define an alternative viewing hierarchy, alternative programming logic 250 goes to step 282 (See
Next a determination is made as to whether the user wants to select micro-programming (282). If the user does not want to select micro-programming, alternate programming logic 250 ends (274). If at step 282 the user determines that he or she wants to select microprogramming, a determination is made as to whether staggered time alternate viewing packages are desired (284). If staggered time alternate viewing packages are desired, then the selection is entered (286) and alternate programming logic 250 goes to step 296. If staggered time alternate viewing packages are not selected, then a determination is made as to whether the user wants to select time synchronized alternate viewing packages (288). If the user desires to select time synchronized alternate viewing packages, then the selection is entered (290) and alternate programming logic 250 goes to step 296. If the user does not select time synchronized alternate viewing packages, then a determination is made as to whether a buffered alternate viewing package is desired (292). If a buffered alternate viewing package is desired, then the selection is entered (294). If a buffered alternate viewing package is not desired, then a determination is made as to whether another selection is made (296). If another selection is to be made, alternate programming logic 250 goes to step 284. If another selection is not to be made, alternate programming logic 250 ends (274). A default option may also be available if the alternate viewing service provider plays continuously broadcast alternate viewing packages. In that case, the default option would be that the television would move to the alternate viewing broadcast at the time of the blocked commercial and pick up the alternate viewing package playing at that time.
In an alternative embodiment of alternative programming logic 250, a negative determination at step 296 would send the user back to step 254 so that the options may be viewed again. Additionally, there are other types of alternative programming which may be displayed at step 210. The user can then enter search criteria and search program 300 (See
The user then enters keyword terms that represent the search criteria for search program 300 (308). The search terms can be entered via a keyboard, stylus, infrared port, or on-screen programming. In entering the search terms, search program 300 will recognize conventional Boolean search terms such as “AND”, “OR”, and “NOT”. Search program 300 is capable of accepting wildcard search terms. For example, the wildcard search term “run*” would search for run and all possible variations such as runner, running, runners, and so on. Search program 300 also compares each of the search terms to a dictionary database. If any of the search terms are not in the dictionary database, search program 300 will determine related words using lexical parsing and query the user if the terms are relevant to the desired search. Lexical parsing solves the problem of tense variation in the search terms. Search program 300 is also capable of resolving ambiguities in entered search terms by comparing the search terms to the dictionary database. Those skilled in the art are aware of how to configure a search program to resolve ambiguities. In alternative embodiments, the query step can be removed where search program 300 automatically adds the lexically parsed words to the list of search terms. Additionally, the search criteria can comprise a date restriction (i.e. only today's programs, only programs on this week, or only programs on Tuesdays). Furthermore, the search criteria can comprise restrictions based on specific channels (i.e. only programs on ESPN®, DISCOVERY®, CNN®, or VH1®, or alternatively, only programs on channels 8, 12, 25, 45, or 54).
Search program 300 then compares the search terms to the buffered text (310). Search program 300 will compare the search terms to the terms contained within the buffer. In comparing the search terms with the buffered programs, search program 300 will also create a list of synonym search terms. By accessing a thesaurus database, search program 300 can obtain relevant synonyms and use those terms to search the buffered text as well. When the search term matches a word in the buffered text, search program 300 will mark the program and continue to search through the rest of the buffered text. When the entire buffered text has been searched, search program 300 evaluates the relevancy of each flagged item. In evaluating the relevancy of each flagged item, search program 300 looks to the original search terms, the synonyms search terms, the lexically parsed search terms, and the date, time and channel specified by the user. Search program 300 then ranks the flagged items from most relevant to least relevant.
Search program 300 then displays the list of television programs which were previously marked in step 310 (312). Search program 300 will organize the results of the search according to how well they correspond to the entered search criteria. The results of the search are displayed with the time and television channel pertaining to the television program. The user then browses the television programs returned in step 312 (314) and makes a determination whether he or she would like to conduct another search (316). If the user does want to conduct another search, search program 300 returns to step 308. If the user does not want to conduct another search, the user makes a determination whether he or she would like to select a television program (318). If the user decides to select a television program, the user selects a television program, search program 300 displays the selected television program (320), and search program 300 ends (322). If the user does not want to select a television program, then search program 300 ends (322).
Many optional features can be displayed along with the alternative programming. For example, it may be beneficial to display a timer in the corner of the screen which shows the time remaining until the end of the blocked commercial. Additionally, the user may desire to have a brief description of which commercial is being blocked. Moreover, the user may wish to have a timer counting down the amount of time until the desired television content returns. Furthermore, the inventive concept contained herein can be utilized to block all commercials and display only desired programming. If the user desires to block all television commercials, then the logical unit develops a library of the unwanted commercials. The library of blocked commercials could be accessed by the user according to an Archive Interrogation Program (AIP) that would allow the library of blocked commercials to be searched by key words, phrases, date and time or other any other method that a person skilled in the art may use to search a library of stored data. Commercials designated as blocked by the user are added to the library and blocked in the future. Alternatively, the logical unit can buffer the entire multiplexed signal, delay the signal a pre-determined time (i.e. sixty seconds) and block out all television programming that is not greater than sixty seconds. This would block all thirty and sixty second television commercials. This implementation can also be orchestrated at the cable provider rather than the user's television or the logical unit. The user may have the option to block selected commercials permanently (without the recourse to unblock the commercial at a later time) while designating other commercials as non-permanently blocked commercials (with the recourse to unblock the commercial at a later time). The user may have the option to block all previously blocked commercials (and to view new commercials) or to block all commercials. In addition, the user may be provided with the option to block, unblock and access the programming of the logical unit by means of voice commands or audible signals such as clapping.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the invention, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the present invention.
Hamilton, II, Rick Allen, Fellenstein, Craig William
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